"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted 14 years ago . . ."
With those words, Mr Ken Livingstone - former leader of the greater London council, recent political outcast - concluded a sensational political comeback to become London's first elected mayor.
After a long wait, punctuated by bitter rows over the failings of the electronic counting system, Citizen Ken - banished to the wilderness by the former prime minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher - claimed his prize with a majority of 212,290 over his Conservative rival, Mr Steve Norris, on the second count at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre.
The exit polls had confirmed the inevitability of Mr Livingstone's victory. But he had to await the elimination of all other candidates, after emerging with 38.96 per cent (667,877) of the first preference votes, to 27.09 per cent (464,434) for Mr Norris, with Labour's Mr Frank Dobson on 13.06 per cent (223,884), barely ahead of the Liberal Democrat, Ms Susan Kramer, on 11.87 per cent (203,452).
Following the elimination of the other nine candidates, the final result left the Independent Mr Livingstone with 776,427 votes (57.92 per cent) to Mr Norris's 564,137 (42.08 per cent), a majority of 212,290 (15.84 per cent).
On an electorate of 5,093,464, Thursday's turnout was just 1,714,162 - at 33.65 per cent actually down on the numbers who voted in last year's referendum on the creation of the mayoral post.
Mr Norris's better-than-predicted performance was matched by a strong showing for Conservative candidates seeking election to the new 25-member Greater London Assembly.
Of the 14 directly elected members, there were eight Conservatives to six Labour - the Tory advantage reflected in a 33.21 per cent (526,707) share of the vote to Labour's 31.61 per cent (299,998). The Liberal Democrats, with 18.91 per cent (299,998), claimed none of the directly elected seats.
But the top-up party list votes produced a final allocation leaving the Conservatives and Labour each with nine seats, the Liberal Democrats four, and the Green Party - having secured 10.24 per cent (162,457), twice the quota required - with three seats, and the potential for a significant role in the politics of the capital.